It always surprises me when some friends confessed that they have never eaten Indonesian food. Indonesia is a country with 240 million population. We seem to always gather ourselves around food. We are also spread out literally everywhere, from Japan to Suriname, Australia to Canada. So I foolishly assume that somewhere, somehow, a person would have known or met an Indonesian person, and therefore must have tried some of our foods.

“Nope, never had it before,” said one friend

“Nada,” said another

“Not even Nasi Goreng or Mie Goreng?” asked me, stubbornly

“What’s that?” asked one friend

“Never. Not ever.” said another

“Huh.” me, flummoxed. And then quickly, “Well, then we gotta do something about it.”

As a nation we have such a wide variety of food. Take Sumatra (one of the big 5 islands) on the western part of Indonesia for example, there you’ll find a wide array of curries and very hot burn-your-tongue flavors. In Java (mid central part of the country, also one of the big 5 islands), you’ll be treated with something a little more sweeter and milder. Tea and coffee are both served sweet, very sweet. The dishes will have the sambal (chilli sauce) on the side, rather than in the cooking as you would find in Sumatra. Further east, it will vary again, some are mild and some are very spicy. Indonesia is a world of flavor and spices.

What Indonesian food should I introduce to those who’s never had any? The one definite hit will always be… Gado-Gado. It is the ubiquitous Indonesian parboiled salad with peanut sauce. Here’s my take on Gado-Gado. It is a no fuss food, easy to make and guaranteed to please the belly. As an Indonesian typically you would have some ready peanut sauce block ready for use (my favorite one is produced by “Karangsari” or the one that my Auntie Nuk lovingly makes). However, realizing that most of my readers are out of Indonesia, I’ll also include a recipe that you can attempt.

**Optional: fried krupuk (prawn crackers or emping), I don’t particularly like this, so I won’t include in the recipe, but the general Indonesian population likes it! 🙂

Directions:

In a saucepan (enough to put 2L water in), bring the water to a boil

Add the cabbage squares in, parboil until just soften (about 1.5 minutes). Using a slotted spoon, transfer the parboiled cabbage squares into a colander to dry. Run cold tap water to prevent the vegetables to cook further. Transfer to a plate that is big enough to hold all the vegetables

Using the same boiling water, repeat the same step to bean sprouts (1 minute), carrot sticks (2 minutes), and spinach (1 minute). Careful to boil in that order. Always boil the spinach last so the green tint wouldn’t discolor the other vegetables.

Arrange the cucumber, tofu and eggs together with the parboiled vegetables

Pour the Saus Kacang (recipe below) on the salad and garnish with fried onion and krupuk.

Serves 4 hearty portions

Saus Kacang (Peanut Sauce)

Ingredients

150 grams peanuts (fried/roasted, doesn’t matter which one, but the point is to pre-cook it)

Tom! Well… it’s kind of new-ish (only since last December), so it is quite possible you may have missed the launch, so close to Christmas that it was! Welcome to the site. Happy you can use the recipe. I’ll try to update it as regularly as my time allows it. 🙂